Feedback Re Keith Harmon Snow's Article

In Africa Genocide Article, Writer
Distorts Our Book

By Kevin Funk and Steven Fake

As the authors of "The Scramble for Africa:
Darfur - Intervention and the USA," we find it necessary to
respond to Keith Harmon Snow's highly confused and
misleading references to our work, and the strange litany of
positions he attributes to it, and to us.

Harmon Snow
writes that "The book makes no mention of covert operations
or private military companies operating in South Sudan or
Darfur." Yet this is demonstrably false. We mention the role
of Dyncorp in both south Sudan and Darfur (page 88), and,
more prominently, Blackwater – in fact, twice in the main
text (88, 115), and also for two paragraphs in an endnote
(248). Perhaps Harmon Snow's razor eye for detail somehow
missed the book's index, in which both companies are
listed.

He roundly condemns us for citing "ad nauseum all
the usual propagandists," like Eric Reeves. But of course
citing does not mean approving. In fact, we label Reeves a
"hawkish commentator and invasion advocate" (xxvii), and at
different points observe that he pursues his arguments
"bizarrely" (xxvii), "very naïvely (to be charitable)," and
that he is simply "wrong" (272). In a broader point, even in
writing from a leftist perspective, there is of course value
in referencing mainstream works (in addition to left-wing
ones) where appropriate, as doing so serves to broaden the
audience that will be open to the arguments.

As is
obvious, relatively few who are not already leftists will be
swayed if citations are only given to left-wing works,
though if a critique of US policy appears "even" in the New
York Times or another mainstream publication, it is much
likelier to resonate with the broader public.

Harmon Snow
also incorrectly notes that while we call Omar al-Bashir a
"major war criminal," we "never similarly condemn" Western
powers such as the U.S. and Israel, and their leaders.
Again, the factual record, easily available to anyone who
reads the book, indicates otherwise.

We note that, "Given
that the U.S. has been named the biggest threat to world
security in polls of global opinion, one may wonder when a
blue-helmeted UN liberation force will be deployed to the
streets of Washington to halt its war against the people of
Iraq" (64), and that Washington's concerns about the ICC are
a reflection of the fact that "it might become a serious
instrument for justice, and will thus turn to investigating
US crimes" (xxxviii). We reference Israel's "ethnic
cleansing of Palestinians" (63), its "war crimes" (116), and
the fact that its "massive crimes are perceived to be in
service of Western geopolitical interests" (64). Again, the
positions Harmon Snow attributes to us are utterly
unrecognizable.

Even where Harmon Snow directly cites our
work, he deftly manages to misrepresent our arguments.
Referencing our comment in the foreword that, "there would
be little to mourn in Bashir's overthrow, and such a
move—depending, of course, on the actors involved, and its
prospects for success—could be cautiously supported," he
comments that, "In other words, it's fine for white people
from the United States to organize the overthrow of
sovereign governments, as long as we selectively chose the
'right' people for the job."

We make our assertion in the
context of discussing the Justice and Equality Movement-led
coup attempt against Khartoum in May of this year. There is
simply nothing about non-Sudanese trying "to organize" a
coup, and in actuality we argue vehemently in the book
against any sort of foreign-led regime change in Khartoum,
and spend an entire chapter on the imperialist uses of the
doctrine of "humanitarian intervention." Rather, as is
obvious to any individual with any notion of the concept of
"solidarity," our comments mean that we stand with the
oppressed segments of the Sudanese population in their
struggle for justice, whether their oppression comes from
internal or foreign sources.

What we present above
suggests one of three conclusions: (1) that Harmon Snow did
not read the book, (2) that he read it and did not
understand it, or, (3) that he read it, understood it, and
nevertheless chose to deliberately misrepresent the analysis
presented therein. We will not speculate on which of the
three, or perhaps some combination of them, is behind his
mangling of our arguments, though none of the possibilities
qualify him to be writing about our analysis in the first
place.

We invite the editors and readers to draw their own
conclusions about the merits of our book and arguments (our
website <www.scrambleforafrica.org> features
several excerpts from the text, as well as our other
writings on the Darfur conflict), and expect that this
letter will be appropriately included on the page containing
his article.

Putting aside the serious
mischaracterizations of our book in this article, we are
very pleased to see analyses that challenge the distorted
narratives of the Western corporate press reaching readers.
It is impossible for those of us living in the U.S. to act
in solidarity with the oppressed in Africa unless the
realities and true causes of African conflicts are known.
That is particularly true when our government plays a direct
role in the violence.

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